It had been 12 days since we started Social Experiment #1 – where we removed all of the clutter and toys and crafts from our kids rooms. It was interesting to see what happened when some neighbourhood kids came over on a day off school.
Blake’s friend from our street came over at about 10 and they played together until 4. They are both 8, they are easily entertained and they played happily with the sports equipment they found in the basement. When I came down after an hour, they had pulled out every single type of ball we have, the baseball bat, the gymnastic mat and the blankets. Once again an easily cleaned mess but still a mess.
Then Jaida’s friend came over at about 11. She is the older sister of Blake’s friend. We all went in the hot tub. When we were out of the hot tub, the girls asked if they can get some crafts out of the shed. I immediately suggested things they could do without getting the stuff out of the shed – play a game (we kept 4 family games), drawing, baking, sewing. I tried to explain that “out of boredom comes great creativity” … they really wanted to make clay charms so they went over to the friend’s house instead. I was very surprised as Jaida never goes anywhere without eating first and my offers for lunch and snacks were futile, she really wanted to go play at her friend’s house.
The boys asked if they could go to the friends house as well because they have hot dogs for lunch and we didn’t have hot dogs. So all the kids left.
The boys were back after lunch to play wii (for limited time) and soccer outside.
When Jaida returned she told me that they made some clay charms (she came home with 3 of them) and then they drew (she came home with some drawings) and baked some muffins!
Is there a scientific observation here? The kids seem to be just as happy without all of the toys and crafts. Sure, the girls left to play at another house because they had the choice but I think they would have been happy drawing and baking at our house too. It really didn’t matter to the boys, they were happy and didn’t seem to notice the lack of items.
Also, I’ve noticed that kids like to be surrounded by stuff and clutter. Every time there is a group of kids together they make a fortress of clutter around themselves, not worrying about tripping or stepping on some hard toy and not thinking about the fact that they are going to have to clean up the mess afterwards. I’m not sure what to do with this information but I am happy that these messes are easier to clean without the additional toys we used to have.